Is Bush Over?

"By announcing via the Web, Clinton ensured that only her best face would be amplified. And, rather than launching out on the campaign trail, she followed up with a three-night series of online 'conversations' in which regular folks could e-mail questions for her to answer in Web-video broadcasts. These, too, aimed to create the impression of eagerness to interact with the masses--but they were carefully vetted by her staff to ensure that nothing uncomfortable slipped through.

"In her first week of candidacy, then, Clinton managed to avoid a single spontaneous moment, thereby eliminating any risk of a campaign-killing gaffe or, for that matter, even a minor misstep. Yet her announcement and the first leg of her campaign still wound up all over the Web--and, in the absence of any alternative access to the candidate, they were rebroadcast all over television, as she and her handlers surely knew they would be. By putting technology to clever use, she turned the handicap of her reliance on talented consultants into an asset and debunked the notion that Web video is inherently dangerous to politicians. In effect, she became the first post-YouTube candidate."

Newsweek discovers the most inspiring figure in Hillary's inner circle:

"There is another person on Hillary's shortlist of confidants who goes back farther than any of them, but whom you've probably never heard of. The Rev. Don Jones, a Methodist minister who is now 75, was perhaps Hillary's earliest spiritual and political mentor. She has written of her 'lifelong friendship' with him. It was Jones who first awakened young Hillary to the civil-rights movement and counseled her on questions of faith. They continued to be in touch as Hillary became a national figure. Years later, he helped her through the darkest period in her life, the aftermath of her husband's affair with Monica Lewinsky...

"She clearly talks more about religion these days, as many politicians do--but her connection to Jones reveals that her Christianity has always been at the center of her identity."

Now this, from Fortune, is high-priced hardball:

"Arthur Sulzberger Jr. survived the Jayson Blair scandal and Judith Miller's jailing, but as proxy season beckons, the publisher and chairman of The New York Times faces a new challenge. This one is from Hassan Elmasry, a London- based managing director of Morgan Stanley Investment Management who has been trying to incite a shareholder revolt against Sulzberger.

"Unfortunately for Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack, Elmasry's campaign is turning into a high-priced headache.

"Fortune has learned from a New York Times source and others close to the matter that the Ochs-Sulzberger family recently put in a request to pull the majority of its assets from the bank. (Morgan Stanley had been the longtime custodian of the family's assets, including its stake in the Times company - which, based on recent share prices, is worth close to $640 million.)"

Take that.

Mark Leibovich asks: Is there too much Washington gossip, and it is pretty lame?

Joe Biden's campaign can't be "derailed" because . . . well, here's what John Nichols says in the Nation: